“She said something about Kitty killing everyone.” Arthur swore under his breath and the phone rustled slightly. “Arthur, please. I can’t help her. You’re the only one who knows what to do.”
Arthur grunted into his phone. “Look, Knight. You’re responsible for her now, I expect you to take care of her. I don’t trust her with anyone else.”
“I appreciate the confidence, but I’m asking again, I won’t ask a third time.”
Arthur sighed loudly, rustled the phone again, and came back, sounding pissed off but resolved to his fate of the Lisbeth whisperer. “Feed her something, just let her know you’re there. Constant physical contact or she’ll drift off. She spent too much time alone when you were gone, she can’t handle it anymore. She’ll come out eventually, when she chooses to do so, not before.”
Knight relaxed beside me, his spare hand running up and down my arm, but I barely felt anything. “Thank you, Arthur. I mean that. And don’t ever repeat this but… I’m glad she has you.” His phone clicked abruptly, and I drifted off again without Arthur’s voice to steady me.
After that, the only thing I could sense was Knight’s hand holding mine on and off. When it wasn’t there, I felt like I was drifting at sea, floating away across the vast waves. Arthur was right, I had to choose to come out of this, and I wasn’t ready to surface. If I did, if I crawled out of this abyss, I had to face that my dream could become a reality if this didn’t go the way I planned. Maybe that’s why I had the dream, to remind myself why this was so important, so that one day I wouldn’t have to kill my child.
Kill Kitty. I could never do that. Not ever. I’d let her raze the world to the ground and I would still hold her to my chest with love. That revelation brought me to the streets of Florence. I was somehow sitting at a café in a large city square. In front of me was a plate with a flaky pastry that smelled of cherry jam and cream cheese. Across from me was Knight devouring his own pastry like it owed him money. He finished his, licked his fingers with far too much gusto in a way that would’ve turned me on under normal circumstances, and then reached for mine.
I slapped his hand away. “Not a chance.”
He looked surprised briefly, smiling warmly at me once he could see that I was lucid. “Hey, you. You okay?”
“No,” I admitted quietly. I picked off a piece of pastry and brought it to my mouth. It tasted buttery and decadent. “How long was I… away.”
“Since yesterday. We’ve been in Florence for about ten hours.” He licked his fingers again to make sure he didn’t miss any bits of pastry. Would that I was a bit of pastry on his fingers. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“The plane, sitting in your lap.” My cheeks flushed and I ate more pastry to hide it. “Arthur’s voice…” I trailed off, trying to remember. “Was he here?”
Knight shook his head and I looked away, feeling the tendrils of insanity lap at me. “You were out for so long, I was worried you’d go into a frenzy on me since you were already low on blood, but I got you to drink some from a straw.”
I focused on my pastry. “Your blood?” My stomach said no, but I had to wonder how he felt about that now.
He shook his head. “Tried it. You wouldn’t drink.”
I stared hard at the red jam on my food. Fuck, fuck. It’s not blood. Don’t slip away again.
“That’s not off the table, by the way, you drinking from me. You’ve been on bagged blood for weeks, you’re bound to be weakened. Why didn’t you get a new companion after you had your baby?”
“Too busy.” It was true, but I’d also not wanted to bring any new humans into this war. If we lost, they’d be slaughtered by the enemy. Not that I intended to lose. “I appreciate the offer. It’s kind of you. I will have to take you up on it, I’m afraid. I can’t look weak in front of the Lycans.”
“It’s no trouble,” he said quietly, almost looking hurt. Why? Because I wasn’t eager to sink my teeth in him?
I got up and took a large bite from my pastry. “We should go. We’re late.”
“Late for what?” he asked as he scurried to keep up with me. Navigating through the city, partly from memory and partly with the help of google maps, I passed him bites of the pastry to keep him quiet until we were at the airport car rental station.
The receptionist greeted us cheerfully. “Welcome to Florence,” she said in her native tongue. “Do you have a reservation?”
“Great. She only speaks not-English,” Knight complained. “If only one of us spoke–”
I interrupted him by addressing the woman in Italian. “We have a reservation under the name Jasmine Heart. We apologize for the late arrival.”
“Not a problem,” she responded cheerfully. “I shall get it for you immediately, Miss Heart.” She started typing away on the computer, so I turned to Knight with a smile.
“You speak pasta? Who knew. I bet you speak all the languages. I should be impressed.” He wasn’t? I wanted to pout, but I refrained and stuck my tongue out at him.
“I don’t speak every language. Do you know how many there are?”
He contemplated. “More than ten?” That earned him an eye roll, and almost a smile.
“Miss Heart, here are your keys.” The receptionist handed them to me and had me sign a paper before coming around the desk and leading us outside. I’d rented a small convertible, and Knight eyed it with suspicion.
“You and your tiny cars,” he muttered. He dumped his bag into the trunk next to mine and jumped into his seat like the car was a rinky dink jeep he used to get through muddy puddles.
“Watch your… damn it, this is expensive leather!”
“Yes, and I’m worth it. Where are we going?”
“Hell.”
“Yay. I’ve been needing a tan.” He slipped on some sunglasses –when did he get those– and turned to me. “Pedal to the metal, baby.”
The engine revved when I started it. “You’re such a dork.”
“Just trying to cheer you up,” he said seriously. “You really scared me, Lis.”
Whispers of that phone call with Arthur went through my head, and I absently rubbed the steering wheel in my hands. “I know.” I pulled out my own set of sunglasses and put them on. “Buckle up, princess.”
“That’s more like it!” He put up his hand for a high five.
“No, I mean buckle up. If your head goes through the windshield, I can and will drink you dry.”
He slowly lowered his hand with a pout. “Noted.”
We sped out of the parking lot, through the city, and into the countryside. The green hills rolled past us, the nostalgia palpable inside my head, bringing up memories I’d tried hard to bury.
Florence was the city that changed me forever. It was a story for another time and another life, but focusing on it took me away from the haunting shadows of my fears.
“I haven’t been here in a long time,” I said after over an hour of silence. Knight looked at me, but he didn’t say anything. My fingers worked the leather on the steering wheel again to offset my anxiety. “I was with Olivier and her nest of vampires. We ruled over Europe, from city to city, leaving only carnage in our wake. Funny, I know, coming from me. It ended badly, that’s why I’ve stayed away.”
“You hunted humans,” Knight guessed, his tone faded and absent. Judgy? Maybe. But I deserved it.
“Yes,” I admitted. “It was the way we were back then. Not all of us, just the renegades. The small nests that had no allegiance to the Council, or anyone for that matter. Not even each other sometimes.”
Knight put his arm across the seat, his hand just barely touching my shoulder, every twist of his fingers running them along my sleeve. “What happened?”
Lost in the memory, I tried to focus on the countryside so I wouldn’t fall inside my own head. I’d brought it up, I might as well tell him. “They…” My nails tore into the steering wheel leather on accident. Knight’s hand slipped to clasp my shoulder and rub it gently. “They killed a child.
A girl. Her name was Babette. Her father made beautiful pastries at their home when he could afford the flour, but no one would hire him because he had a skin problem. Rosacea, most likely. In those days it was akin to being sickly, so they were poor. She was all he had. And she died in an alley, scared, chased by a dozen vampires. They drained her dry, and they didn’t care. They didn’t fucking care…” I broke off and the emotion from the memories, combined with all the stress I’d been dealing with, rose to the surface like vomit.
Knight’s hand moved again to take one of mine on the wheel before I crushed it on accident. “It’s okay.”
A curtain of tears threatened to blur my vision of the road. “No, it’s not okay. Fuck, I will never forget her face, drained of blood, lying in a dirty puddle. She didn’t deserve that.”
“She didn’t,” he agreed. “But you didn’t kill her.”
“I didn’t, no. And I will never kill a child as long as I live. Her father… killed himself afterward. I buried his body myself, right next to where I’d laid Babette to rest.”
Why did I bring this up in the first place? Maybe I’d needed to tell someone, after all this time. Tell someone my biggest regret. It made my other problems seem far away.
“Is that where we’re going?” he asked, his hand still clutching mine tightly. I shook my head, brushing a tear away with my free hand. “You didn’t have to tell me that, but thank you for sharing it. I know it hurts.”
“I’ve never told anyone how painful that was. Not out loud. I’ve held it in for a very long time.” I took a deep breath. “Shit. I don’t know why I said all that. It has nothing to do with what we’re doing right now.”
“You can tell me anything,” he assured me. “Whatever you like. Whenever you like. I don’t care.”
I took my hand back. “I know.” In the silence, I felt the need to clear the air about something else. “I don’t know if I love Arthur.”
“You said.”
I met his eyes and held it. “But that doesn’t change what I felt for you. No matter what happens, I want you to know that.”
“I’m curious what you think will happen?” And he smiled, only slightly, making me take my hand back.
That’s when I saw it, our destination. I shook off the memories, the worries from my nightmare, and the flurry of feelings Knight inspired. I was filled with anticipation to see the person we were visiting, and it wasn’t a Lycan or a vampire.
“You’re excited,” Knight commented with a smile.
I smiled back at him. “Now that I’m done being melodramatic, it’s time for the main event. You get to meet someone from my past.”
“Former lover?” His tone said joke. His face said otherwise.
“Ha ha,” I responded with a glare. A sign appeared before us and I shifted in my seat with eagerness.
Chateau Granger.
We turned onto the dirt road and rolled down the driveway, grapevines on either side of the car in rows upon rows. They were all well-tended and brimming with clusters of fruit. At the end of the drive was a large barn where the wine was made, and a small stone house that looked out of place with the luscious estate.
Standing in front of the barn, glancing over a clipboard, was who we’d come to see. My heart leaped at the sight of him and I couldn’t get to the barn fast enough. As soon as the car stopped, I scrambled out of it and ran to him.
He looked up from his work in utter shock upon seeing me, and dropped his clipboard on the ground. “Lisbeth! Mon cheri!” He held his arms out for me to jump into, and fuck, I felt like I’d been waiting for this for so long. Taking care not to break him, I hugged him as hard as I could, even lifted him off the ground before wrapping myself around his neck. His scent was like coming home, and I wept with joy against his shoulder. He tried to pull away after the acceptable amount of time for a hug, but my tears turned to sadness and I couldn’t let him go yet. “Lisbeth,” he breathed against my forehead. “What has happened to you?” He pet my hair gently, his arms holding me tightly.
“So much,” I whispered, hoping Knight wouldn’t hear me. Eventually, I had to let him go or I’d break him in half on accident. I pretended to be taking in the scenery so I could wipe my eyes.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend, Lisbeth?”
I turned back with a sniff. “Of course, I’m sorry. Galen, this is my friend, Knight. Knight, this is my former companion, Galen Granger. He came to the Order with Renard three decades ago. I haven’t seen him in twenty years.”
“You have not aged a day, cheri,” Galen joked. “And you are a bad woman, knowing where I live and never coming to visit.”
“I’m here now?”
He laughed, his face showing all the age lines he hadn’t had when he was with me. They suited him. If he wasn’t a human, I’d be into him. “Fair enough.” He ran a hand through his short, sandy curls that were fast becoming gray. “Come, I will show you my home.”
Galen led us up a path with handcrafted wooden stairs to the small home on the top of his estate. Two rocking chairs sat on the front porch, one more weathered than the other. Through the front door was a large room that had a kitchen, den, and dining room all in one space. The floor plan was open and spacious with natural light coming from large, uncovered windows. It felt clean and full of sunshine. It suited Galen as much as his smile wrinkles.
He went to the kitchen to grab a pitcher of water and pour us all a glass. I noticed picture frames on a table next to the door, depicting Galen with a beautiful woman and looking very happy. She had bright hair like fire, her skin covered in freckles. I walked to one of the photos and picked it up.
“Your wife?” I asked him. He came up to me and traded a glass of water for the frame.
“Melissa,” he explained, putting the picture back on the table. He handed Knight the other glass of water. “She’s gone now.”
“I’m sorry.” He smiled and waved slightly to say it was okay, and while I could see the pain in his eyes wasn’t fresh, it also wasn’t gone. “Children?”
“No, it’s just me here. I had hopes that Renard would come one day.” He took a sip of his water and looked away.
“He told you?” I asked.
Galen nodded and set his glass down. “That he is a vampire?” He chuckled under his breath. “I cannot say that I am surprised. He fell in love with Olivier the moment he first laid eyes on her, so what was he supposed to do?”
“Die?” Knight prompted.
I shot him a glare. “What the fuck?”
Galen smiled though, used to this kind of talk. “Would you condemn the one you love to live forever without you? And when I say forever, I mean forever.” I sipped my water, looking away. “Renard also told me about Arabella.” Sadness sliced through me and I met his eyes even though I didn’t want to. “She used to play here every weekend. Sometimes more often than that. She’d climb the trees and read books in the branches. When she told me she was going to become a companion, I thought her future was set. Ten years of her life and she could become anything she wanted.”
My eyes fell in shame. “I’m sorry, Galen. I didn’t protect her. I failed you, and Renard.”
“Non. Blaming yourself will not bring her back. The important part was that you got justice for her. You killed the men who slaughtered her.”
My hands formed into fists as I remembered that day, my anger rising like a tidal wave. “I turned their worthless bodies into dust for what they did to her.” Our eyes met and I couldn’t hide the rage that still filled me. He answered my rage with his own, nodding to me, then he blinked and it was gone.
“My apologies, Knight,” he said brightly, changing the mood. He pointed to the east wall of the house with two doors on it. “That is the guest room and the bathroom. There is only one bed…” He checked my face before continuing with, “The couch is comfortable, Knight. I hope you don’t mind sleeping there?”
“Not at all,” Knight answered. He picked up my bag and took it to
the guest bedroom, then he disappeared into the bathroom.
Galen glanced at me with a look on his face. He nodded his head towards the bathroom. “Your new companion?” I shook my head. “Your lover?”
I scowled at him. “Why is that the question people keep asking me?”
He smirked at me. “If you need to ask, I’m afraid I can’t explain it to you.”
“We…” I looked to make sure the bathroom door was still closed. “We aren’t like that. Anymore. I don’t want to talk about it right now.” Galen put his hands up to signal he was staying out of it. “I’m going to rest, if that’s okay. It’s been a long day.”
“Of course. Dinner will be ready in two hours.”
7. The man bun
A nap, a shower, and several minutes in front of the mirror later, I emerged on the back porch in time for dinner. I’d put on a simple black dress and braided my long hair. Galen deserved me putting some effort in. He’d never seen me not at my best.
Galen had changed into a linen outfit with a tan jacket, while Knight was wearing a white shirt with a black jacket that was rather stylish. When had he gotten that? I looked up to see his hair was in a man bun.
A man bun.
He held up his finger at me when he saw my expression. “Don’t comment on the man bun unless it’s to say how awesome I look.” I pressed my lips together to suppress a laugh. “Also. You look nice.”
“Of course I do,” I replied with a sarcastic smile. “I’m gorgeous.” Shit, was I flirting? No, stop that!
Galen was staring at me with raised eyebrows. “Since when did you have a sense of humor?” He looked at Knight while pointing a finger at me. “When I was with her, this woman did not understand jokes, comedy, nothing. I gave her my best effort and she never cracked a smile. She was very stoic.”
“Lisbeth? Stoic?” Knight laughed behind his hand. “We talking about the same woman?”
“Screw you,” I joked, almost reaching out to smack him before I stopped myself. “My previous companion, Cameron, he taught me humor. He refused to accept me not laughing at his jokes.” We sat down and I put my napkin over my dress.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 40
